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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

A. L. BOGART.

APPARATUS FOR OPERATING ELECTRICAL DEVICES.

Patented Feb. 5, 1884.

L l l l l l 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

A. L. BOGART.

APPARATUS FOR OPERATING ELECTRICAL DEVICES.

Patented Feb. 5, 1884.

N erms, FlvuXo-Lllhugmphur. mm 0.6

' UNITED Sra'rns fi/ rrsNr A. LIYIXGSTOX DOGART, OF JAMAICA, XEYV YORK.

APPARATUS FOR GPERATING ELECTRlCAL @EVlCES.

QPZCIFICATIO N forming part of Letters Patent No. 292,785, datedFebruary 5, 1824.

Application filed August 18, 1883. (X0 model.)

' T0 to whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, A. Livrxcs'rox Boo ART, of Jamaica, in the county ofQueens and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Apparatus for Operating Electric Devices; and I hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, (on two sheets.) which form a.part'of this specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in open-circuit electricalapparatus for operating annunciators or alarms, or other instrumentswhere it is necessary or desirable that the circuit shall be closed fora given length of time before the annunciator or other instrument isactuated, and that said length of time claps ing between thc'closure ofthe circuit and the actuating said instrument can be regulated oradjusted at pleasure.

The invention consists in the combination, in open-circuit electricalapparatus, of a circuitconducting resistance consisting of a thin ribbonor wire, with mechanism or devices constructed to be set in operation atand not before a prescribed and adj ustablc point of time after theclosure of the circuit by the expansion of said resistance resultingfrom the passage of an electric current through the salne, as ishereinafter particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a front view, and Fig.2 a side view, of my improvement, and Figs. 3 to S, inclusive, whicharehereinai'ter explained, are modifications showing my improvementadapted to special purposes.

Similar letters ofreference indicate the same parts or objects whereverthey occur.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, Sheet 1, A is the circuit-conductingresistance, consisting of a thin ribbon or wire of metal or otherelectric conducting substance presenting resistance to the electriccurrent passing through it. It is fixed at one end to any suitablesupport, L, and at its other end is attached to thelever D, which latteris pivoted at E, and is provided with a suitable device to bring atension upon the ribbon Aas, for instance, an adjustable spring, F, saidspring F and ribbon A thus holding the lever D firmly in its normalcondition, with its upper end under the free end of the droplever G, asshown in Fig. 1. The

drop-lever G is pivoted at ll. in aframe, l,and is held firmly upon theupper end of the lever 'D by means of a coiled spring, H, (shownin Fig.2,) or by other suitable means. The axis of the lever G carries apointer or other indicator, K.

B y is a battery, and L is a circuit-closer of any suitable form orconstruction.

The parts above described being in their normal positions, as shown in1, and the switch m'upon the point m, it the circuit be closed at L, acurrent will proceed from the battery B 3 through the wires 'll '10 andlevers G and D to O, thence through the ribbon or wire A and the wire10" back to the battery.

Now, the ribbon or wire A, being constructed to present more resistancethan any other portion of the circuit o'fequal lcngth,will become heatedthroughout its length by the passage of the electric current through it,and will consequently expand, and thereby permit the sprin F to act uponthe lever D, so as to withdraw the upper end of said lever from underthe end of the drop-lever G, which latter, being then unsupported,willfall into the position shown by the dotted lines G, at the same timemoving the indicator 1i, and also breaking the circuit through A.

The mode of adjusting or regulating the length of time which shallelapse between the closing of the circuit and theinstrument orinstruments being set in operation is as follows: The length of timeelapsing between the closing of the circuit at L and its being broken atG will depend upon the distance the upper end of the lever D has totravel before it frees itself from the end of the drop-lever G, and themovement of said lever D is dependent upon the longitudinal expansion ofthe ribbon or wire A, which allows the spring F to draw the lower end ofthe lever inward, and thereby to withdraw the upper end thereof fromunder the end of G, and the extent and rapidity of the expansion of Awill be propertionate to the strength of the current passing through it,and hence the distance which the upper end of D will tr vcl in a giventime with a given strength of battery may be readily determined bytrial.

The adjustment ol'the distance to be traveled by 1) may be accomplishedin various ways, one of which is shown in the ('lra\\'ings ill namely,the frame I, which carries the droplever G, is pivoted at M by means ofa screw, so that said frame may be oscillated or moved toward or fromthe lever D, to increase or diminish the distance the said lever willhave to travel to free itself from G.

Should it be desired to have a magnet operated by the current due to theclosure of the circuit at L, for the purpose of ringing an alarm orperforming other function, such magnet may be inserted anywhere in themain circuitas, for instance, at Nand said magnet woul'd record by itsarmature the length of time elapsing between the closure of L and thebreaking circuit at G; or, by placing a magnet, O, in a branch wire, 0 BO J, such magnet would be operated from the time the break is made at Guntil the circuit-closer L is opened, the circuit in such case beingfrom the battery 13 y, through 10 w G J O B 10*, back to the battery.

In order to make a better connection between the levers G and D, aspring, 1?, may be employed, said spring being arranged to rest upon Gwhen the latter is in its normal position, and connected to D by thewire 1' a".

Should it be desirable to have a magnet operated continuously after thecircuit is broken at G, whether the circuit-closer L remains closed oris openedas, for instance, for the purpose of continuously ringing thebell in a burglar-alarmthen said magnet 0 may be illserted in a branch,J O O S, in which case the circuit, after the break at G, would be fromB 11 through 20 w G J O S, andback to the battery; or, again, saidmagnet may be inserted in a local circuit having its own battery, asshown by J O B '10.

In practice it may be found necessary, i some instances, to use a ribbonor wire A so thin or of so little resistance or a battery so weak thatthe movement of the lever D would be insufficient to be depended uponfor operating the indicator. In such cases the modifieation shown inFig. 3 may be employed. In this modification the drop-lever G isdispensed with, and the lever D is provided with a contact-spring, y;and 0c is an adjustable contact-point, which is made ad j ustable bymeans of the screw 1), or similar device, and forms part of a localcircuit. On closing the circuit at L, the expansion of Abrings y and 0cin contact after the lapse of a certain interval of time, said intervalof time depending upon the distance between 1 and'x, to which they havebeen adjusted; and the contact of 3/ with w closes the local circuit tooperate a magnet, R, for any desired purpos esuch, for instance, ascausing a bell to be rung, (or an indicator to be operated,) the ringingof said bell commencing at the end of a prescribed interval of timeafter the circuit has been closed at L, and continuing so long as themain circuit remains closed at L; or, again, by running the main circuitthrough the wires a Z) c (1 cf, including the indicator and drop-levercircuit-breaker lever D, contact-points a: and 7 to G", and the otherthrough the wire Z, magnet R, and wire Z to G, and when the circuit isbroken at :0 y by the expansion of A, then the strengthened branch Ioperates the magnet R to break circuit at G In Figs. 5, 6, 7, and S areshown modified forms in which the circuit-condueting resistance A may bemade. In the three firstnamed figures it is made in the form of a thinstraight ribbon or wire fastened at each end In this case there are twocircuits to any suitable non-conducting support, Q, r

and operates by means of the curvature pro duced by its longitudinalexpansion.

In Fig. 5 the lever D is held by the stop pin q, attached thereto, whichrests on A, the spring F keeping it in contact therewith, and as thecurvature of A, due to its expansion, increases, the force of saidspring is thereby allowed to swing the lever D forward, as shown by thedotted lines. This may be used as a substitute for the form shown inFig. 1.

In Fig. 6 the increase of curvature due to its expansion causes theribbon or wire A to make contact with a contact-point, g. In Fig. 7 theribbon or wire A is normally in contact with the point q, and theincrease of curvature causes it to break contact with the point and inFig. 8 the said ribbon or wire A is made in the form of a spiral, one ofits ends being secured to any suitable support, Q, and its other endattached to a shaft, (1 carrying a lever or indicator, (1, so that theexpansion of A is made to operate said lever or indicator.

I am aware that the motion produced by the differences of linearexpansion of a wire or ribbon conductor, due to its temperature varyingby varying the quantity of electricity passing through said conductor,has been employed as a regulator for electric lamps, as described inLetters Patent of the United States Nos. 229,922 and 233,236; also, thatthe expansion of a platinum wire at agas-jet, caused by a current ofelectricity being passed through it to heat it to ineandeseence toignite the gas, has been employed to out said wire out of circuit whenthe gas was lighted, first, to prevent said wire being destroyed by thecombined force of heat from the current and the gas-flame, and,secondly, to shunt the current to the next burner-wire, as described inLetters Patent No. 235,97 9. I am further aware that the heat producedin a resistance by a current passed through it has been utilized tooperate a th ermometer or th ermic circu it-closer by conduction, saidcircuit-closer being employed to close a branch or local circuit after astated time, to out off or break the main circuit and sound an alarm, asdescribed in Letters Patent No. 276,286. But I do not use and do notclaim as my invention any of the devices enumerated in or covered by anyof said Letters Patent. Neither do I claim a metallic spring or ribbonfor the purpose of breaking a circuit through an increase either in theresistance or the quantity of current in the circuit, as .in LettersPatent X0. 262,428 to What I claim as my invention is In an open-circuitelectrical apparatus, a circuit-conducting resistance, A, consisting ofa thin ribbon or wire, in combination with a drop-lever or equivalentdevice, as described, for permanently breaking the circuit, saidresistance A and said circnit-breaking devices constructed and operatingconjoint-1y as described, to break the circuit at and not be fore theexpiration of a prescribed and ad justable interval of time after theclosure of the circuit by the expansion of said resistance A, resultingfrom the passage of the normal current through the same, as and for thepurposes set forth.

A. LIVINGSTON BOHART.

Ilitnesses:

Jonx S. THORNTOX, )I. H. illorrrvo.

